Krazy and Ignatz, 1927 Through 1928: Love Letters in Ancient Brick

Krazy and Ignatz

by George Herriman, Bill Blackbeard (Editor)

The greatest comic strip of all-time. In a 1999 special issue, The Comics Journal named George Herriman's Krazy Kat as "the greatest comic strip of the 20th Century." In 2002, Fantagraphics embarked on a publishing plan to reintroduce the strip to a public that has largely never seen this volume is the second of a long-term plan to chronologically reprint strips from the prime of Herriman's career, most of which have not seen print since originally running in newspapers 75 years ago. Each volume is edited by the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum's Bill Blackbeard, the world's foremost authority on early 20th Century American comic strips, and designed by Jimmy Corrigan author Chris Ware. In addition to the 104 full-page black-and-white Sunday strips from 1927 and 1928 (Herriman did not use color until 1935), the book includes an introduction by Blackbeard and reproductions of rare Herriman ephemera from Ware's own extensive collection, as well as annotations and other notes by Ware and Blackbeard.
Krazy Kat is a love story, focusing on the relationships of its three main characters. Krazy Kat adored Ignatz Mouse. Ignatz Mouse just tolerated Krazy Kat, except for recurrent onsets of targeting tumescence, which found expression in the fast delivery of bricks to Krazy's cranium. Offisa Pup loved Krazy and sought to protect "her" (Herriman always maintained that Krazy was genderless) by throwing Ignatz in jail. Each of the characters was ignorant of the others' true motivations, and this simple structure allowed Herriman to build entire worlds of meaning into the actions, building thematic depth and sweeping his readers up by the looping verbal rhythms of Krazy Kat's unique dialogue. As Lingua Franca once wrote, "Herriman was a rare artist who bridges the gap between high and low culture. His surrealistic strip was admired by popular entertainers like Walt Disney and Frank Capra yet also had a highbrow fan club that included E. E. Cummings, Willem de Kooning, and Umberto Eco."

Genres: Comics, Comic Strips, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Art, Humor, Fantasy

120 pages, Paperback

First published December 26, 2002

About the author

George Herriman was an American cartoonist celebrated for creating the groundbreaking comic strip Krazy Kat, a work widely regarded as one of the most inventive, poetic, and influential achievements in the history of comics. Raised in a culturally diverse environment and navigating complex racial identities throughout his life, Herriman developed a singular artistic voice that combined humor, surrealism, philosophical reflection, and emotional nuance. He began his career as a newspaper illustrator and political cartoonist before transitioning fully into comic strips, producing several short-lived features and experiments that helped him refine his sense of rhythm, timing, and visual storytelling. Krazy Kat, which emerged from an earlier strip called The Dingbat Family, became his defining work and ran for decades in newspapers across the United States. The strip centered on a triangular relationship among three main characters: Krazy, a blissfully optimistic and androgynous cat; Ignatz Mouse, who continually expressed his contempt or affection by throwing bricks; and Offisa Pupp, a dutiful dog who sought to protect Krazy and maintain order. What might have been a simple gag became, in Herriman’s hands, a lyrical exploration of love, longing, misunderstanding, and the complexities of emotional connection, articulated through shifting perspectives, inventive language, and a dreamlike visual landscape inspired by the American Southwest. Herriman developed a distinctive style that blended loose, expressive brushwork with carefully considered composition, often altering backgrounds from panel to panel to evoke mood rather than physical continuity. His dialogue employed dialects, puns, poetic phrasing, and playful linguistic invention, creating a voice for Krazy Kat that felt both musical and deeply human. The strip attracted a passionate following among intellectuals, writers, and artists, including figures such as Gilbert Seldes, E.E. Cummings, Willem de Kooning, and many others who recognized its sophistication and emotional resonance. However, Krazy Kat never achieved the widespread commercial popularity of contemporaries like Popeye or Li’l Abner and often relied on the support of influential newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who admired Herriman’s work and insisted it remain in publication despite fluctuating readership. Herriman also produced the comic strip Baron Bean, as well as numerous illustrations, editorial drawings, and commercial work throughout his career, but it was Krazy Kat that defined his legacy and shaped the development of visual narrative art. The strip influenced generations of cartoonists and graphic storytellers, contributing to a lineage that includes artists working in newspaper strips, comic books, underground comix, graphic novels, animation, and contemporary experimental media. Herriman maintained a private, quiet personal life, working diligently and steadily, drawing inspiration from the landscapes of California, Arizona, and New Mexico, which he visited frequently and often featured in his art as stylized mesas, desert plateaus, and open skies. His deep engagement with the American Southwest brought texture, symbolism, and environmental presence to Krazy Kat, making setting an integral emotional and thematic component rather than a mere backdrop. Although widely honored posthumously, his work was recognized during his lifetime by peers and critics who understood the originality of his vision. Today, he is acknowledged as one of the key figures who expanded the expressive potential of the comic strip form, demonstrating that sequential art could convey subtle emotional states, philosophical ideas, and complex storytelling with elegance and humor. Herriman’s legacy endures in the ongoing study, republication, and celebration of Krazy Kat, which continues to be admired for its innovation, sensitivity, and unique artistic spirit.

Reviews

[Spiral · Rating 5 out of 5]

we found these comics initially inscrutable, especially in parsing what characters say, and how they say it. a lot of them have their own quirks in how they use language, both in spelling and meaning. despite this lack of comprehension, I felt an irresistible pull to keep on reading, and re-reading, until eventually after a few dozen pages it started making sense.

if we had seen these comics outside of this collection, outside of any context to when they were made, we could readily believe that they were from today, or recent years. there's something to Krazy Kat that feels shockingly modern- apparently it was not well received at the time, unfortunately, but this solidifies it as being well ahead of its time. one of the most fascinating details to me is how background details are redrawn in wildly inconsistent ways from panel to panel, which rather than being jarringly obvious, took me a while to notice!

there is a strong and consistent logic to Krazy Kat, beyond the obvious relations of the cop who arrests Ignatz, Ignatz who throws bricks at Kat, and Kat who loves Ignatz for it. the violence, though cartoon slapstick, was disconcerting, but it's clear that Kat truly does not suffer for it, despite the cop's protests of it. Ignatz puts on an act of throwing the bricks with the intent of causing harm, but sometimes you can see that he does it out of love for Kat. the cop is the most subtle, as rarely are there hints that he, too, is fond of Kat, although he gets the least reward for his endeavors. but who cares about him, because he's a cop and deserves to rot for that.

there is so much to explore about the characters and the world they inhabit, and it's constantly fascinating. we highly recommend this book to anybody, but especially so for fans of comics, bizarre humour, and fuzzy love.

- N, J & R
(note: we first read this collection in 2020)

[Michael P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sublime entertainment with K. Kat and I. Mouse. It must seem odd to state that Herriman was at the height of his powers whilst creating these fill-length pages since he was at the height for decades, but indeed he was. There are Shakespeare references, too. If you do not know the delights of KRAZY KAT, enrich your life with this book.

[sumerkidestate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, l'amore.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 4 out of 5]

"grainy" covers-> if sticker remover skip ex-library

Still no continuity- which would probably get ***** out of me.

I've now read ten years of the series!

[Buck · Rating 3 out of 5]

As T.S. Eliot stepped out of the Lascaux Caves, he was heard to mutter: ‘Art never improves’ – possibly the most profound thing he ever said.* Nevermind that it’s demonstrably untrue: Hamlet is a HUGE improvement on Gorboduc, just as The Wire is way, way better than Hawaii Five-O (though how to explain the curious deadness of My New BFF as compared to the irrepressible sparkle, the ‘hard, gem-like flame’ of The Simple Life?)

Well, these comic strips are sort of like the Lascaux Caves of 20th century art. At the very moment when the conventions of the newspaper cartoon were being tentatively codified, Herriman was busy -- oh, God, here it comes, I can’t help myself -- subverting them. Thus, in a strip from 1927(!) he has a character rewinding, ‘as they do in the “movies”’, to the first panel in order to find out what was said there. Or else he’ll suddenly insert a visual non-sequitur just for the fun of it (in one such interlude, Kat and Ignatz disappear into a puddle of spilled ink, like Wile. E Coyote falling into one of those portable black holes he was always throwing around).

So was Herriman a visionary genius decades ahead of his time? I don’t think so. I think he was a talented hack so deeply bored with the set of devices he’d been handed, so cruelly afflicted with the repetitive intellectual stress of having to think up, week after week, new ways for a mouse to brain a cat with a brick, that just for his own amusement, he started adding these little quirks and trills.

And the quirks are interesting, for a variety of historical and aesthetic reasons. Interesting, but not much more. The strips are pungent with period flavour; they move with a loopy comic rhythm; but they’re not, to my taste, all that funny. But hey, let’s face it, someday they’ll be saying the same thing about The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes (sorry, they will).

Ah, but as for Cathy, sweetest Cathy… age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety…


* But did he say that? A cursory web search suggests the story is apocryphal. But, damn it, somebody should have said it.

[Rob McMonigal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another two years of brick-tossing mayhem by this duo that had to inspire Tom and Jerry, Sylvester and Tweedy, and other such combinations. The writing seems a little bit sharper this time, as Herriman uses a bit more wordplay to flesh out the jokes.

Things like "Joe Stork, Purveyor of Progeny to Prince and Proletariat" portrayed on the page show that this strip was definitely ahead of its time on a comics page that's always preferred the "Ack" of Cathy to the fine intellectual interplay of Zippy the Pinhead and pals. In its day, I'm sure it stood out rather like "Pearls before Swine" does whenever you open the funny pages. In fact, the comparison holds rather well if you read both fairly close together which I did recently.

There is the slight problem of the gag getting a bit old over time, but Herriman does an admirable job of varying the joke, my favorite being the time Ignatz robs an archaeological dig to get a brick to hurl at Krazy's Kranium. But there's also the "door mouse" (literally), rubber bricks, and other visual gags that set this material ahead of what was in the previous volume.

Again, while this might not appeal so much to the casual fan, if you are into old comics, and I certainly am, this is definitely worth grabbing to read. Just watch out for flying bricks! (Library, 02/08)

Trebby's Take: Definitely happy they collected these, a good read for any comics fan.

[Mitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect panels emerge from the idiosyncrasy. It looks like Herriman drew whatever kooky landscape came to mind, as often there is no background continuity. The ever-shifting background deemphasizes what does change, the characters' words.

Krazy's dialect charms, and the Spanish, whenever it is thrown in, firmly grounds the characters to the otherwise absent culture of Kokonino. The intermission panel plays with pace so that even your reading is disturbed.

Herriman's tampering with every element of the comic (even its reading experience) gives Krazy Kat its quirky tang. In concentrating all that is constant into the trope of the brick, Herriman creates a Sunday strip unpredictable, the highest feat for a comic strip artist. As for the dailies, I am unsure.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love comics, and I appreciate slapstick, but this didn't do it for me. I picked it up because of its reputation with fans, where I would normally pass on reprints of early 20th century comic strips. The thing that really throws me out of almost every single panel is the intentional misspellings. I just cannot wrap my head around how these characters are supposed to sound in my head. At least with something like the Katzenjammer Kids, I get that their mispronounced words are Eastern European immigrant and I can hear that in my mind.

[Matt Carton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like I am going to give any of these Krazy Kat kollections bad reviews or ratings. I'm continually astonished at the artistry of these comics. I also marvel at how long one can extend a brick-tossing joke.

[jared Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

"~There is a heppy lend fur fur away~"

[Jay Daze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like I was hit in the head with a brick! Lil' Ainjil!

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I will ever love a comic more than this one.